India, Sept. 24 -- A Pune sessions court has acquitted a 35-year-old man accused of abetting the suicide of his wife in 2016, holding that the prosecution failed to establish that he subjected her to physical or mental cruelty or provoked her to take the extreme step.

Additional Sessions Judge Aniruddha Sulabha Subhash Gandhi acquitted Vijay Dinkar Desai in the case registered with Sinhagad Road police under Sections 498-A (cruelty by husband or relatives) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

"It cannot be said that the accused abetted the deceased Pooja to commit suicide," the court observed in its September 19 judgment, uploaded on September 23.

According to the prosecution, Pooja married Desai in 2012 and the coup...